ROCK HILL, SC – Sophomore Natalie Royaards scored her first career hat trick Wednesday night to propel the Winthrop women's soccer team to a 4-1 victory over the UNC Asheville Bulldogs.

With the victory, Winthrop improved to 5-7-1 overall on the year and 2-4 in the conference while the Bulldogs fell to 6-7-1 on the year and 2-3 in the Big South.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Winthrop opened the scoring in the 25^th minute as Royaards scored her first of the night.  Palmer collected the ball near midfield in the center circle and played a long through ball to the on-running Royaards who beat the Asheville defender.  She dribbled in on the keeper and placed the ball to the keeper's left for the 1-0 lead.

Less than four minutes later, the combination of Palmer and Royaards gave the Eagles a two-goal edge.  This time Palmer played a long ball over the top of the Bulldog defense that Royaards ran onto, took two touches and slotted it to the right of the oncoming goalkeeper.

Asheville responded quickly less than two minutes later in the 31^st minute.  Emma Houser got a shot off from 10 yards away that Ashlynn Harris made a save on but the rebound went straight to Rachel Synder who was able to sneak it past Harris and two Eagle defenders to make the score 2-1.

Royaards completed the hat trick in the 48^th minute.  She dribbled the ball along the sideline and took a left-footed cross that ended up challenging the goalie.  The ball rebounded off the goalkeeper's chest and arms and just snuck across the line, giving Winthrop the 3-1 lead.

The Eagles were able to add an insurance goal in the 86^th minute.  From the top of the penalty area, Zoe Conover laid a ball off to her right to Allie Thomas who took one touch towards goal and shot the ball across the face of goal and into the side netting.

STATS OF NOTE

Royaards's hat trick was the first for the Winthrop women's soccer program since October 8, 2014 when Krystyna Freda scored three goal on the road against the UNC Asheville Bulldogs.  Royaards finished with seven shots on the night with six going on frame.

Courtney McLeod, Allie Thomas, Lauren Kelly and Megan Loveland each tallied two shot.  Ashlynn Harris earned her second career victory while making seven saves.

NEXT TIME OUT

Winthrop hits the road for its next contest as the Eagles head High Point, NC to take on the High Point Panthers Saturday at 4 p.m.